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in the United Kingdom.

and Nation-Building:

Political Development Theory and the Appeal of

Communism inSoutheast Asia, 1945-1975Mark T. Berger

theory and political development

theory played a key role in thetheformalisationstudy of Southeast Asia, while the dramatic transitions fromofcolonies to nation-statesin the region and the deepening war in Vietnam were alsotothe rise and transformationpivotalof modernisationtheory. This article provides a critical historical overview of the rise and elaboration of theories of politicalbetween 1945 and 1975.development and nation-building

Modernisation

Introduction:

of Westerndominanceand ideologiesof modernisationideologiesofWesternAdas, in his importantdominance',quesstudy of'ideologiestions the idea that the influential theories of modernisationthat emerged during the latecolonial and early Cold War periods were 'primarily' new concepts created to 'counterMichael

in the 'underdevelopedthe appeal of Communism'world'.In his view, althoughthetheories of modernisationof the Cold War era were 'recast in developmentjargon', theywere groundedin ideas which were 'deeply rooted' in the 'historical experience' ofWestern Europe and North America.1 Michael E. Latham's innovative examinationof'ideoloofthat, contrary to the argumentsgies of modernisation'parallels Adas and concludestheir advocates,those theories that emergedin the 1950s and early 1960s 'were neithernor completelynew politicaldecisiveintellectual breakthroughsinitiatives'. He arguesthat whilethe basic assumptionsof these emergentweretheories of modernisationinthecultureWarofColdNorthmodernisationtheoristsAmerica,clearly groundedalso 'reframed' earlier 'imperial ideals' in order to tell US citizens'who they were'and to clarify what the projectionof US 'power could achieve'. As with earlier 'imperialmodernisationbetween'backward' andsays Latham,ideology',theory distinguished'advanced' regions, at the same time as it representedthe United States as the 'summit ofwith a 'mission to transform a world eager to learn the lessonsmodernity'only Americacould teach'.2These are sophisticatedand insightful analyses; however, both scholars - particuthe post-1945larly Adasplace too much emphasis on the relative continuity betweenMark

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422

MARK

T. BERGER

theoriesmission

and economicof politicalthe US modernisingthat informeddevelopmentin the Cold War era on the one hand, and the various ideas about progress andin the nineteenththe civilising missionthat animatedand early twenimperial expansiontieth centuries on the other. Their approaches neglect important aspects of the changed

era and the significance of these changes for the theories

of the post-1945in the 1950s. In particular,that emergedthere is a need to build oncharacter of decolonisationtheir analyses while giving more weight to the transformativeand the Cold War. A key shift in the period in question was not just the growing significance of the idea of developmentit was consolidatedandper se, but the way in whichcircumstances

of modernisation

as specifically national development

in the context of the establishmentof thenaturalisedinof the nation-stateand the universalisationAfricaandUnited NationsAsia,system- orOceania. This period witnessedthe constructionof nation-statesreconstructionthe frameworkof an increasinglyand nationalidentities withinglobal nation-statetheformercolonies.thisalso involved thethatsystemrapidly incorporatedImportantly,asnation-statesGreatsuchofsimultaneousBritain, France,imperialreconfigurationand Belgium(aswell as Japan and the United States) into nation-statesPortugal, Hollandshorn of most

if not all of their formal

colonial

possessions

and,

in some cases, of their

imperial pride.Decolonisation,the crucial backdrop

of the nation-stateand the Cold War providedthe universalisationof modernisationfor the rise and elaborationtheory and closelythat were centred on directof political developmentand nation-building

related theoriesor indirect US involvement

in the formation

and consolidation

of stable anti-communist

became the central and unques

systems. After 1945 the nation-statepoliticaltheorists and the natural object of a burgeoningtioned unit of study for modernisationin state-mediatedand nation-building.3nationalnumberof exercisesdevelopmentofexercised a proAt the same time, modernisationandtheoriesnation-buildingtheoryof area studiesfound influence on, and were bound up with, the rise and transformationThenarrativesAsian StudiesandAsianStudiesdominantwithinspecifically.4generallythe need for the various nation-statesofthe 1940s and the 1970s emphasisedbetweenform of capitalist modernity.towards a relatively universalAsia to develop graduallynational

Modernisation

theorists

implicitly acknowledgedwork generallytreated

sometimes

conceived

of the new nations

that they were historically

as naturalthese countries

in ways that at least

constructedand contingent,but theirunits that would - or at least ought

era is definedhere as primarilyUS- or Soviet-sponsoredin the Cold Warefforts, withNation-buildingin the Congoinvolvementfrom 1960-4. The OperaNationsrelative exceptionssuch as Unitedimportantwasauwhichhadactionsince the Korean War,the biggest UNUniestion des Nations(ONUC)Congoin practise.Americanthe fact that itwas an overwhelminginitiativebeen a UNoperationdespiteformallyto play a moreWarthe UN again beganitwas not until the post-Coldera, whenFurthermore,significanton the scale of its operationin the Congoin thethat it intervenedrole in nation-buildingefforts,Warvon Hippel,worldinUSinterventiontheKarin1960s;Democracymilitarypost-Coldby force:earlyPress, 2000).UniversityCambridge(Cambridge:entersee Robert A.on area studies,studies and academic4InternationalFor backgroundMcCaughey,in the enclosurePress,1984);(New York: ColumbiaUniversitylearningof Americanprise: A chapterarea studies',in The Cold War and theof Cold War'The unintendedImmanuel Wallerstein,consequences3

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Press,studiesduring

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

AND

423

NATION-BUILDING

to - evolve along a single path (or at best a limited number of paths) towards modernity.the use of political modelsand lessons with little or no regard for questionsMeanwhile,to theof time and place further underminedmodernisationtheory'srelationshipornewofandtheconsolidationofformation,temporalspatial specificitycollapsein this period. Whilenation-statesthe theory played a key role in the consolidationandas national developmentroutinisationof the idea of political and economic developmenta particularlyafter 1945, Southeast Asia occupiedin the study ofimportant positionmodernisationinNorthAmericanscientiststhe1950sand1960s.5bypoliticalThe concern with nation-buildingat the centre ofand nationaldevelopmentwasatomodernisationtonumberoflinkedthe period fromtrendsmajortheoryspecificthe 1940s to the 1970s. To begin with,the idea of national developmentafter 1945involved the representationand promotionof WesternandNorthAmericanEuropeanmeasuresof political, social and economic progress as increasingly universal and nationalsolutions.

Although many of these particular approaches had their origins in the ninea numberteenth and early twentiethof them were only consolidatedincenturies,WesternandNorthwithofLatin America, Central EuropeAmerica,Europepartsalongand Japan, in the 1930s or even the 1940s.6 After 1945 these formulationsincreasinglyon the nationalinvolved a universaland nationaleconomyemphasis,theoretically,as well as agrarian reform and agro-industrialisation,and a privilegingindustrialisation,or state in the managementof the role of the national governmentof economic develop- ament.In awider sense, national developmentinvolvedincreasinglyagain in theoryon education,'social democratic'health care and other publicinstitutionsemphasis5and

Southeast

Asia

south

of China

Singapore,However,

as that part of Asia

is now widelyunderstoodthe contemporarynation-statesof Burma,the Philippines,Cambodia,Laos, Vietnamand, most

(or South-EastAsia)and encompasses

Indonesia,Brunei,the concertedtreatment

that

lies east of India

Thailand,

Malaysia,East Timor.recently,economicand geopolitical,traced back to the nineteenth

Asia as a distincthistorical,usage of the term can beorigin. Whileit only gainedcolonialand nationalistleadersscholars,officials,currencycentury,amongstpolicy-makersin the 1930s and early 1940s. For example,'SoutheastAsia' was used by the end of the 1930s in variousand documentsof Pacific Relations,foundedin Honoluluin 1925 to promotereportsby the Institutein the Pacific.Between1943-6the theatreof war underthe overallof Lorddirectionunderstandingwasas the 'South-EastMountbattenidentifiedAsia Command';the territorycoveredhowever,by thiswerethe boundariesof whichin the waningincludedthecommand,expandeddays of the war, neveror all of Frenchera the Frenchin the early post-1945Indochina.Meanwhile,Philippinesgovernmenta 'Southeaston its coloniesto promoteAsia Union'centredin the region as part of its effort tosoughtretainits possessionsand its influence.wasThis was counteredAsianwhichby the 'SoutheastLeague',in 1947 by the Lao PrinceRed Prince),who becameits first General(the so-calledset-upSouphanouvonggraphical

and RandallPackardthe importanceof the late colonialcontext,Cooperemphasisearguingof the idea and practiceof developmentthat rose to dominanceafter the Second'specific origins'are to be foundWorld Warin the 'crisis of colonialin the 1930s; Frederickand Randallempires'Cooperin Internationaland the social sciences: Essayson the history andPackard,'Introduction',developmented. Frederickand RandallPackardof CaliforniaPress,politicsCooperof knowledge,(Berkeley: University10.1997), pp. 6-7, 33 notethat

the

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424

MARK

T. BERGER

to facilitatethe process

social advance and the incorporation

of the majorityof the populationintoThis emphasis was also readily apparent, albeit inof national development.versions of national developmentdifferent ways, in the state-socialistthatsignificantly- aninfluenceoftheUSSRandtheofwiththeChinaPeople's Republicemergedgrowinginfluence that the North Americanof national developmentproponentssought explicitlyto challenge.7in the late 1940s, the US was increasingly animatedWiththe onset of the Cold Waranatoconstructcommitmentstate-mediatedopen world economy while promotingbyas part of its wider effort to contain the USSR and its allies. Theofthe US in the nation-statesystem as itwas consolidatedpositionduring thehegemonictraces of the colonialismand imperialismCold Warstill bore significantpractised bythe European powers and imperial lapan, as well as by the United States (in places such asin an earlier era.8 As already suggested, however,the Philippinesand the Caribbean),in importantSoviet Cold WarcontinuitiestheandAmerican'empires' departeddespiteorMostinfromearliercolonialandwayspoliticalimperial projects.significantly,national

development

or lessup more'empires' madeand sovereign nation-statesrather than colonies. Theentirely of formally independentrole of the US in Latin America by the early twentieth century and the role of Britain inas well as Britain and France in the MiddleEast after World WarLatin America,I, hadthis new form of'inter-national'foreshadowedpower. In the Cold War era the relationterms

administrative

both

countries

presided

over

and their allies was increasingly mediated

the respectivesuperpowersbyship betweenand new internationalinstiofalliances,militaryregional organisationscomplex systemsinvolved formal agreementsbetweenall of whichtutions such as the United Nations,anThisfromearliernation-states.important departurerepresentedostensiblysovereignforms of imperialism7and

The

literature

the Third

on

and colonialism.9is of course

Liberal Americasubstantial.Robert A. Packenham,See, for example,aid and social sciencePrincetonideas in foreign(Princeton:development1973); Irene L. Gendzier,Managingpoliticalchange: Social scientists and the Third Worldbetween nations:The origins of economicPress,1985); Carlos Ramirez-Faria,inequality

4 (2002): 511-40.II era were groundedWarof the late-colonial,the empirespre-Worldin the interests ofof colonial marketsand controlpowers,by the colonialthe economicand investors.However,put in place afterarrangementsmetropolitan-basedcorporationsato increasinglytranscendand financialinstitutionsII pavedWarthe way for large corporationsWorldon whichorand othernation-statesupport.they had relied for regulatoryparticularsingle metropolitanascan be, and has been,characterisedin the latter part of the twentiethUS hegemonycentury'posttime the nation-statethe case by the 1970s, by whichThis was particularlysystem had beenimperial'.wereat least in retrospect,contoursof the globalisationand the overalluniversalisedprojectbeginning,in worldL. Sklar,in Postimperialismto becomeG. Beckerand RichardDavid'Introduction',apparent;9

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G.

Becker

(Boulder:

AND

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

425

NATION-BUILDING

The geopoliticaland geoeconomicframeworkof the Cold War was thus centralas a universalto national developmentideal. After 1945 the US and the Soviet Unionpresided over a growing system of alliances and disbursedlarge quantities of economicand militaryaid to the 'developing' nations of the 'Third World';the IMF and theWorldnational development.Bank, as well as the UN, also played a growing role in promotingas both process and ultimate goalthe idea of development/modernisationnarrativesnationalistMostthe globalworldwide.increasingly permeatedimportantly,in theory, of the idea of the equalityinvolved the universalisation,spread of nationalismIn this context

of all nations

and of all citizens within

all nations.

The

idea of nationhood

carried with

it a commitment,suffrage. The UN

at least in the abstract, to democracy,

humanrights and universala global communityCharter explicitly envisionedof formally equalwerethatnation-statesin thatsentimentsexpected to observe the democraticexpressedon human rights. By the 1980s, however,theCharter, as well as a range of conventionsdiverse

and often profoundly

flawed versions of national developmentthat had emerged- and in someasbeen consolidatedsuchSouthhad already discases,Vietnam,- overorwerethe previousappearedthirtyforty yearsincreasinglychallenged by theanonWithincreasedinteemergent globalisationproject.global economicemphasisand/or

grationnational

and economic

developmenttrend was accelerated

the previousfailures ofliberalism, globalisationcompoundednew problems. Thisand nation-building,while also introducingand clarified by the end of the Cold War.10

This article explores the rise and transformation

of theories of modernisationandideas of nation-buildingbetween1945 and 1975 and their relationshipto US foreignpolicy, with an emphasis on Southeast Asia. It begins with a brief look at the originson Comparativeof modernisationPoliticstheory, including a focus on the Committee(established

by the Social Science Research

site for the generationof political

importantand consolidationstudies

and Asian

of modernisationStudies

then look at the work

generallyof modernisation

anin 1954), whichrepresentedandthebroaderrisedevelopmenttheory,of areatheory. This is followed by a discussionand Southeast Asian Studies more specifically.ItwillCouncil

and Asian specialists such as Lucian W.

onPolitics and the CenterPye, closelyComparativefor InternationalStudies (CENIS) at the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology(MIT);Clifford Geertz, an important figure on the Committeefor the ComparativeStudy ofNew Nationsat the Universityof Chicago; and George McTurnanKahin, who was brieflyassociated

involved with

with

both

theorists

the Committee

on ComparativePolitics at the outset and played an imporand growth of Southeast Asian Studies. Their work onand Indonesia in the 1950s and at the start of the 1960s is given particu

the Committee

tant role in the establishment

BurmaMalaysia,lar attention. The role ofWalt Whitman

a key

figure at CENIS and an influential

of the Kennedyand Johnson administrations,is then examined.Finally, thearticle will examine the changes to modernisationinthe1960sandtheoryearly 1970s,with a particular emphasis on the US-backedeffort in South Vietnamnation-buildingRostow,

member

10 Mark T. Berger,talism', Millennium:ries of development,

'The rise and demise

of nationaland the originsWarof post-ColddevelopmentcapiJournal of International30,2Studies,(2001): 211-34;Berger, The battle for Asia: Theothe nation-stateorder (London:system and the changingglobalRoutledgeCurzon,

2003).

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426

MARK

(which

T. BERGER

had becomeas well

Huntington,Guy Pauker.

the fulcrumas influential

in Asia) and on the work of Samuel

policyat the Rand Corporationintellectualssuch as

of USpolicy

The changes to modernisation

totheory in this period were intimately connectedthe challengesto, and shifts in orientationof, US foreign policy in Asia and beyond.on the perceivedtoo muchshift in modernisationHowever,emphasistheory in the1960s away from a focus on democracyto a preoccupationwith order, in the context ofthe reorientationof US foreign policy,is no longer warranted.As recent observershave argued, a close examinationof the modernisationliterature makes clear that orderas far as most modernisationand stability were always morethanimportantdemocracywastheorists were concerned.11 Far moretheshiftsignificantby the 1950s from overtlyatoinideasaboutmissionthecoloniesmuch more comprehenracially-basedcivilisingnational developmentand an emphasis on thegovernment-mediatedasofthenation-statethemainofand stability in theimportanceobjectnation-buildingera.wasanCold WarThisthat despite differingemphasisstrategies was increasinglyshared by former colonisersand colonisedalike, and by all sides in the Cold War.At the same time, modernisationtheory was subject to revision in the 1960s andsive ideas about

to its explanatoryand prescriptiveearly 1970s in the context of growing challengesaspirations. An important reorientation was the move away from the psychologicalemphasisof early modernisationthat drew on economicsandtheory and towards an approachaslater become widely knowrational choice theory). Thisgame theory (what wouldchange has been characterisedvariously as a shift from 'constructivecounterinsurgency'or from classicalto 'coercive counterinsurgency'modernisationtheory to militaryanotitinvolvediddramaticofthebasicHowever,assumptionstheory.rethinkingmodernisation

theoristsobjectives

geoeconomic

and US

about Washington's

policy-makersin Southeast Asia and beyond.

geopolitical

ofand

the Cold War and nation-building

1:1945-60Decolonisation,The origins of modernisationandtheof political developmentemergencetheorytheorydefine modernisationtheory in a way that includes developmentis reinforced by Nilsothers such as Colin Leys (whose positionHowever,it ismore accurate toGilman'softheofmodernisationthattheory') arguestudy'genesisas having providedeconomicsofview developmentthe earliest systematic formulationsaswhilemodernisationisbestunderstooddevelopmenttheory generally,theoryhavingscienresponse by politicalappeared in the late 1950s as a particularly North AmericanManyeconomics.

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AND

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

427

NATION-BUILDING

to Talcott Parsons and Edward Shils) 'but at the same

running from Max Weberaintime engagedcritical dialogue with it'.12While political developmenttheory played an important role in the rise and/or revision of modernisationthelatter term can still be seen to encompassconceptionstheory,tradition

as such.of political, social and cultural change that extend beyond political developmenteconomicsshould be regarded as an earlythe same time, I agree that developmentwhileform of developmentthisHowever,theory that is distinct from modernisation.

At

article will use the term 'modernisation

of polititheory' to refer primarily to discussionstoit will also be used more broadly, as is widelydescribecal development,accepted,1945theoriesofthatthe growingofliberalmodernisationafterandarrayemerged

reached across the social sciences,

increasinglyas well as history, sociology and area studies.This formulationallows the Social Scienceon ComparativePoliticswhich was establishedofproductionpolitical developmenttheorymodernisationtheory in the 1950s and early

political

encompassingResearch

science

generally

(SSRC) Committeethe key site for the

Council's

in 1954 and became

to be seen as an important force behind

1960s whetherthe latter term is definedof the committee were Lucian W. Pye,

narrowly or broadly.13 The founding members

Kahinand GabrielGuy J. Pauker, Taylor Cole, Roy Macridis,George McTurnanaAlmond. Chaired by Almondfrom 1954 to 1963, the Committeeprovidedkey focus forItthe productionand disseminationof modernisationisworththeory.noting that of thesix founding members,Pye, Pauker and Kahin did most or all of their work on Southeastto play a key role in both the CommitteeAsia. However, while the first two continuedand the government-politicaldevelopmenttheory nexus, Kahin (who was a key figure inthe consolidationof Southeast Asian Studies, as will be discussed below, and became ain South Vietnamin the 1960s) was eased off thecritic of US interventionprominentCommitteewithin a few years of its establishment.on Comparativethe outset the Committeeas well asand policy-orientedpublications,Its goal was to articulate a theory of politicalcrucial concepts were used inconsistently,and

From

Politics

sponsored awide range of

of conferencesand semi

academic

a number

nars.

development;no full-blown

manyto have

the term

its scientific

and despite the widespread

usage ofaspirationswastheCommitteewhatprovidedtheory',primarily an outrather than a theory per se. It also played an importantrole in thefortheTheparametersacceptableprofessionalstudy of politics.

that its 'purpose' had been

a non-Marxianto provide

asserted

of change

and

thus

aware that they were engaged

In the early 1980s, for example,to 'formulate a non-Communistalternative

ina

for the developing

nations'.14

to generate an alternativeto Marxismtheoreticalis nicelyapparatustotheCommittee'stheofeffortsthe'state'.Theconceptencapsulatedbymarginalisefoundationsfor such an effort were laid after World War I, by which time the concept ofthe state was increasingly displacedand the disciplineof politicalscience was consoliThe

desire

as both the basis of US politics and the

around pluralismdated and professionalisednorm by which political theory and practice elsewhere were to be measured.In the 1950sGabriel Almondand his fellow scholars avoided using the wordthe'state', favouringsystem', as in their view the former was afflicted with at least two important shortcomings.Itwas felt to be a vague term for whichitwas difficult to agree on anorexact definition; moreover,scholars believedthat any definition would marginaliseterm

'political

took the view that

important elements of the political process. They apparentlythe dramatic social and political changes which had occurred since the Industrial Revolueverstate and society had becomebetweention meantthat identifyingthe boundaries

for avoiding the notion of the state

II and the Cold War had provided

in apolitical science with a new set of global imperatives. For example,on1944 reportthe future of comparativepolitics, Karl Loewensteinargued that political'a consciousscientists should dispense with any narrow focus on the state and become

North

American

instrumentthe scientific

of social engineering'integration of'their

for 'imparting' the US 'experience to other nations'

institutionsinto a universal pattern of government'.

andHe

the emergence of a 'total science', arguing that 'the frontier posts of comparamust be movedtive governmentboldly' to include both the entire world and a rangeensure 'access to the true Gestalt of foreignof other academic disciplines, which wouldInEastonit a national1953Davidcivilisations'.politicalargued that the Cold War madeenvisioned

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While

429

NATION-BUILDING

to the 'state' and articulate

sought to find alternativesfor the developingnations',(asthey were also attemptingtoanti-Communismshiftaway from the populist hysteriasuggest)era towards a far moreposition.scientificallypoliticalgroundedtheorists

modernisation

alternative

'a non-MarxianEaston's

AND

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

comments

the McCarthyversion' of AmeriModernisationtheory was, as Gilman has suggested, a 'high-conceptclass conflict, secularism withoutcanism that involved 'materialism withoutirreverence,wasmodernisationwithoutdisobedience'.17clearly antiAlthoughtheorydemocracyin its politicalit rested on a deeper set of assumptionsaboutCommunistoutlook,of

In particular,industrithat in fact overlapped with Marxism.were central to both liberal and Marxist visions of modernitythemodernisationtheorists acknowledgedand nationalFurthermore,development.aorwhileofthe'deviant'versionUSSR,thereof,'pathological'hopingmodernitythoughprogressalisation

seeing it as the direct result of economic

and the key to political stabi

developmenta 'positive relationshipbetween economicsystems. At the same time, thispolitical

was elitist and technocratic,

of political developmentand evenconception- anwasasmorethanimportantstabilityregardeddemocracyemphasisin the 1960s.18become more pronounced

in the 1950sthat would

The rise of Asian Studies

and the emergence

of SoutheastAsian StudiesIn the 1950s and 1960s Asian studies generally and the Associationfor Asian Studiesrole(AAS) more specifically were strongly influenced by, and played a complementaryWarIIWaroftheColdera.19Worldhadin, the wider US-led modernisationprojectinto direct contact with the Americangovernment,brought a large number of academicsfor a wavethe foundationprovidingwastheconflictbutfacilitatedduringtical scientistswartime

and historians

of institutionalthat begangrowth and expansionover amuchWar.Polilonger period by the Coldestablishedcloser links with the US governmentduring

and post-war periods

emerged in a number

than virtually any other academics except physicists. The

ofscientists and hisways, and although not all politicallinkagestorians participated,of these professions were very well represented.the senior memberstook up full-time posts with various governmentMany academicsagencies, while otherssoonaordidpart-timeirregular basis, and many others at the very least consciouslyto influence their work.allowed wartimeand later Cold War imperatives

17 Gilman,'Paving18 James S. Coleman,ed. Gabriel Almond

the world',p. 7.'The politicalsystemsand James S. Coleman

of the developingareas,areas', in The politicsof the developingPrincetonPress,(Princeton:1960), pp. 537-9. OnUniversitysee the introductionof Gilman,and Latham,'Paving the world',

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MARK

430

T. BERGER

of Strategic Servicesof the Central(OSS), the forerunnerwasoneofbest-knownthefor(CIA),Intelligence Agencypostingspolitical scientists andoneareamostandoftheforAsianStudies in particular.studies,historians,significantW. NormanisAsian Studies inwhocreditedwithandSouthBrown,foundingguidingaswaswasNorth Americaafter the war,John K. Fairbank, whoemployed by the OSS,as an informationofficer at the Americanworkedembassy in Chongqing(Chungking)the Office

Meanwhile,

the war. Fairbank went on to become professor of history at Harvard

is regarded as the effective founder of modernChineseStudies in North America.wroteBrownWorldWarandFairbankbothinfluentialhistoricalafterII,surveysShortlyseriesin the AmericanUSaboutrelationswithIndia, Pakistan andForeign Policy Libraryafter the US enteredand

of the Ford Foundation,

China. McGeorgepresidentBundy, one-timeareastudies in the 1950s and 1960s throughconsiderablesupport forand Research Program among other initiatives, characterisedTraining'first great center of area studies in the UnitedStates'.20At the same time, a number of younger academics were attracted

which

providedits Internationalthe OSS as the

to Asian Studiesafter havingserved with the armed forces in the region during the war. This group- or at least theirafter 1945, at aembarked on their studies generallyhigher degreesamountsand private foundationsof moneyfrom governmentsuch astime whenlargeavailable withthe intentionof enhancingbecamethe Ford FoundationincreasinglysameAtofAsiatheandthe North Americantime, theregions beyond.understanding

as a new generationof academicsrange of area studies grew dramaticallydisciplinaryand diversificaentered new or revised fields of study that emerged with the expansiontion of the social sciences after 1945.21 This was the context in which Asian Studies wasconsolidated.for the study of AsiaAmerican-basedorganisationprofessionalcentred around the Farin 1948 as the Far Eastern Associationfor AsianEastern Quarterly, which had first appeared in 1941. It became the Associationhad changed its name to the Journal of AsianStudies in 1958, shortly after the publicationthe Asian Studies professionStudies. Althoughemerged as a result of USincreasinglya number of important specialists init tended to complement,Cold War policies, whichin the early 1950s. The reputation of thethe field were badly treated by the governmentan important pre-1945institutionalwhichhadInstitute for Pacific Relations,providedThe main

North

came

into existence

focus

for Asian

Subcommittee'loss' of China.Relations

experts, suffered irreparable damage after the Senate

had been instrumentalthat the organisationconcludedThe

controversy

Internal

Securityin the so-called

for Pacificthis debate and the InstitutesurroundinginForAASthe1950s.ofthetheemergenceexample,complicatedtensions

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ed.

politicalRobert

AND

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

431

NATION-BUILDING

years and did not have a particularly good

scrutiny in the McCarthytheStateuntilthe1960s; in the early 1950s his services asDepartmentrelationshipa State DepartmentIn 1951 he was refused a passport byconsultant were discontinued.athe US government,trip to Japan, at thedelay on a plannedplacingyear-and-a-halfcame under

Fairbank

with

same time

that he was

called

to appear before

a series of Congressional

hearings

that

his loyalty.22In the 1950s a geographically-grounded

scrutinised

academic division of labour emerged within

into - andwhich was increasinglydividedAsian Studies profession,asEast Asian,institutionalisedSoutheast Asian and South Asian Studies, with thefurthersubdividedinto their nationalcomponents.23Georgeregional groupings beingaon Comparativeasnoted above had playedKahin, whofounding role in the Committeea central figure init early on, went on to becomePolitics but parted company withthe US-centred

a Bachelor'sof Southeast Asian Studies. After finishingWar IIinKahinenteredtheUSWorld1940,Army. DuringdegreeUniversityhe was part of contingentof paratroopers who were trained for insertion behind enemyEast Indies. However,lines in the Japanese-controlledNetherlandsby the time US forcesthe creation

and consolidation

at Harvard

Douglas MacArthurbegan rolling back the Japanese empire in SoutheastAsia, it had been decided that the erstwhile Dutch colony would not be a direct focus ofthe campaign. Kahin ended up in Europe instead, but rekindled his interest in Southeastin 1946 and then wentAsia after the war. He received an MA from Stanford Universityunder General

on to Johns Hopkins University.

He did graduateoftheIndonesiannationalistmovement'speriod

research

in Indonesia

during the final

inDutchcolonialismstruggle against1948-49. After finishing his Ph.D. in 1951, he took up the post of AssistantProfessorof GovernmentDirectorof the recentlyand ExecutiveestablishedSoutheast AsiawasaKahinProgram at Cornell University.driving force in Southeast Asian Studies at1961 and 1970.Cornell in the 1950s and 1960s, and was Director of the Program betweenin 1954 he establishedthe Cornell ModernIndonesia Project, which he ranMeanwhile,in 1988. In the early 1960s he rose to prominenceuntil his retirementbecause of histoUSinSouthheforwas,Vietnam;instance, the mainoutspokenoppositionpolicyinWashington,Teach-inDC in April 1964.24speaker at the first NationalKahin played a key role in the 1950s in consolidatingSoutheast Asian Studies inanHethe North Americaneditedinfluentialsystem.universitystudy of Asian politicsgenerally and another on Southeast Asian politics more specifically, both of which werein this period. His classic study, Nationalismand revolutionwidely used as textbooksin Indonesia, which was based on his doctoralin the late 1940s,research in Indonesiaabout decolonisation,modernisationreflected the early optimismand nation-building.In the case of Indonesia and the rest of Southeast Asia and beyond,itwas hoped - if not

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432

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T. BERGER

- in the 1950sthat ethnic loyalties and so-called primordialsenticonfidentlyexpectedments wouldfade and new loyalties to the modernnation would becomethe centralaspect of every citizen's

identity.25

inSoutheastThe challenge of 'guerrilla communism'Asia I:Malaysiaa particularlyKahin's work representedearly interest in Southeast Asia after 1945scientist. By the time his book was published,the region washowever,by a politicalarenaawere increasinWar.oftheColdmajorbecomingPolicy-makersWashingtonnewinthe context ofabouttheofthenationsconcernedcoloniesand/oringlystabilitythe consolidation

of the People's Republic

of China and the growingofsignificanceanarrowonincommunism'theKahinsuchfocusthepartquestioned'guerrillaregion.of policy-makersand politicalscientistsalike. However,his concernshad a limitedhe became persona non grata at the US embassy in Jakartaimpact, and in the mid-1950s(where the staff were forbidden even to read his book on Indonesian nationalism).26in Southeast Asia attracted thethe challenge of 'guerrilla communism'Meanwhile,interest of a growing number of North Americanpolitical scientists by the 1960s. Signal- aatshiftthePaukerthistheendofof the Committee1950s, Guyfounding memberlingon ComparativewasatoPoliticswarnedthat Southeast Asiabegoing'problem area inIn the early 1960s Pauker was head of the Asian Section of the Socialthe next decade'.at the Rand Corporationand an important figure in what Ron Robinas the 'military-intellectualcomplex'.27 The geostrategicsignificance ofscience to the study of the region areof politicalSoutheast Asia and the importanceof grant recipients from the Foreignreflected in the disciplinaryand regional breakdownArea Fellowship ProgramfundedtheFordFoundation.The FAFP, which was(FAFP)by1952 and 1972. As a group,betweenmanagedby the SSRC, awarded 2,050 fellowshipsscientists received 439 of these awards, morethan any other discipline, whilepoliticalwerecenttheforscienceofdisbursedresearch onperpoliticalfellowshipseightScience Division

has characterised

Asia.28

Southeast

rising interest in Southeast Asia in the context of the growing concern withareas generallyin the work of Lucian W. Pye, also a foundingis apparentdevelopingon Comparativeinfluof the CommitteememberPolitics, who emerged as a particularlywasinin1921ofmissionwhobornChinaential advocate of modernisationtheory. Pye,The

officer in the Marine Corps in Asia during World

ary parents, served as an intelligencewarscience at Yale,II. Followinghe did graduate studies in politicalWarthe end of theas Headsucceeded his mentorwhere he studied with Gabriel Almond.Pye eventuallyin 1963, a post he held until it ceased operationin 1972. Pye's workof the Committee

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MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

AND

433

NATION-BUILDING

an explicitly psychologicalapproach to political behaviour with the examination of political change in the emerging nation-statesof Asia and Africa. His first book,wasinIts social and political meaning.incommunismGuerrilla1956,publishedMalaya:It built on Almond's1954 work The appeals of communism, which was preoccupiedattraction of communism.with the psychologicalAlmondhad concludedthat the comweremunist parties of Westernthewhichofhisfocusdrewtheir recruitsEurope,study,combined

of the populationwho were 'alienated','deviational' or 'psychologicallyUnder these circumstancesthe new recruits were attracted to the structuremaladjusted'.as a meansto resolve personalthecommunistprovided byparties primarilyidentityfrom members

crises.29

in British Malayalinked Almond'sideasinsurgencyPye's book on the communistaasto an explicitly developmentalthatidentifiedlate-colonial'transiapproachMalayational' society. He argued that the fundamentalbasis of the appeal of communisminwas the insecuritynation-statesand other underdevelopedMalayaexperiencedbypeople who had lost their 'traditional way of life' and were undergoingpsychologicalstress as part of their effort to achieve a 'modern' existence. Pye conducted his fieldworkinMalayain 1952-3; he interviewedof the MalayanCommunistsixty former membersof the authorities. HeParty with the cooperationsoMCPthedidthe organisationbecausejoinedotherwise

that the ethnic Chinese who

a 'stable elementin theirrepresentedthat 'in the structure of the party' theconcluded

societies',highly unstablearguingcould find 'a closer relationshipbetweeneffort and reward than anything theynew one'.30in either the static old society or the unstable, unpredictablehave knownaonBendaoutlinedsimilartheofcommunismwhen heJ.Harryperspectiveappealrecruits

that 'communist movements'

in Asia and other parts of the developing worldaorsubstituteforinstitutions'.31'providedecayedvanishingbookreinforcedtheoutlookthatthe counterinsurgencyandPye'sunderpinnedinMalayaefforts of the colonial governmentin the writ(as manifestednation-buildingLike Thompson(who was head ofings of British officials such as Sir Robert Thompson).observed

to South Vietnamthe British Advisory Missionbetween1961 and 1965), Pye's analysiswith the thinking that increasingly underpinnedthe US modernisingandinineffortsVietnam1950sSouththe1960s.lateandvery earlycounterinsurgencyto Pye, if peasantsin 'transitionaltosocieties' joined guerrilla movementsAccordingalso meshed

acquire amodernidentity, then the way to defeat the guerrillas was to establish governingweremoreinstitutionsthatand more modernthan thoseeffective, moreappealinga paper at a US AIDIn November1963 he presentedprovidedby the communists.advisory

committeecrises of

profound

in the new nations confronted

arguing that all governmentsInto resolve these crises, heandorder'participation''legitimacy'.

The Yale Review,

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especially

434

MARK

advisedcitizens

T. BERGER

that the governments

concernedshould seek to gain greater controlamorethemforactiverole in national politics.32by mobilising

over

their

The 'search for identity' inSoutheast

Asia: Burma and Indonesiato USAID madeAs Pye's presentationclear, he was among those modernisationtheorists expressing growing concern by the early 1960s about whetherthe incipient orin Asia and Africa wouldrecently established nation-statessuccessfully make the transition to modernity.For example,in 1960 he had lamented that the 'transitionalsocietiesto rational-legalAsia have not fully incorporatedthe view commonsystemsof authority that the appropriateofistheof public policy in thepoliticsgoalproductionform of laws'. He noted that in Southeast Asia 'power and prestige' were still regularlyregarded as 'values to be fully enjoyed for their own sake'.33amajor study (supported by CENIS atMIT) entitled Politics,In 1962 Pye publishedof Southeast

and nation-building:Burmassearch for identity. His book, which focused onpersonalityamodernthe 'problems of buildingused Burma as a case study but drewnation-state',afromin Asia and Africa. A central queswideofnation-statesrangeemergentexamplestion was whysocieties have such great difficulties'transitionalin creating an effectivestate system'. At the outset he remonstratedthat the 'shocking fact has been thatin the last decadethe new countriesof Asia have had morewithdifficultiesthe

modern

than withpsychologicalasthatcoloniesargued'become more apparent'

the objective economic

problems basic to nation building'. Hein Africa increasingly movedit wouldtowards decolonisation,that they, like the new nations of Asia, were 'crucially affected by

the concern with order that was central to

lamented the apparent lack of 'doctrines ona doctrine,he argued, had been 'inhibitedthat democracy was 'inevitable' and by the

'belief that political development

is a natural and even automaticwhichphenomenoncannot be rationally planned or directed'. Pye emphasisedthe 'need to create more effecto facilitateand morerationalisedtive, moreadaptive, morecomplex,organisations'the'heart'oftheforHowever,him, stillnation-building'problem',nation-building.thecentred on the 'interrelationshipsandculture,among personality,polity'.34with personalityThe preoccupationthat characterisedPye's work is reflected in hisassertion that the 'hope' for 'transitional peoples' rested in their search 'for new collectiveas well as individualidentities'. He was adamant that successful national developmentof a 'greater sense of order' at both the personalandupon the realisationdependedto make this happen, arguingnational political levels. Pye offered two broad approachescombine boththat for transitionalsocieties to 'advance' they would have to successfully

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areas,Yale

AND

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

435

NATION-BUILDING

a leader would emerge

of these. The first involved a 'grand ideological solution' wherebyownthehis'outofofbe'able to give his peoplewouldwho,personal experience',depthsan understandingof the new sentimentsand values necessary for national development'.The second lay in 'assisting individuals as individuals', helping them 'to find their senseof identity throughwould be advanced

the mastery

of demanding'as ever increasing numbers

lives the exacting but also psychologically

mance basic to the modern world'.35 These

skills'. In this way national

of competentpeople meet

developmentin their daily

of professionalperforthe evolutionaryreflectprescriptionsclearlyand universalisedcharacter of modernisationthat modernisationistheory, assuminga transition from tradition to modernityabout makingand that this occurs at the level ofindividual change under a leadership with the necessary vision.the way in which modernisationtheorists expected, or atPye's work demonstratedensure thatleast remained confident,that the correct nation-buildingstrategies wouldstandards

reassuring

traditional loyalties, such as ethnic allegiance would fade and new loyalties to the modernnation would becomethe central element of every citizen's identity. By the beginningofwere experiencingthe 1960s a growing number of new nation-statesrelatedinstabilityto ethnic conflict. For a decade after independencefrom Britain in 1948 the Burmesestate, controlled by the politically dominantBurmans, had been engaged in more or lessongoing warfare with the former colony's ethnic minorities. Most of the insurgencies hadin open rebellion), but itwas not clearwound down by 1958 (only the Karens remainedthat they had been resolved - and it became obviousin subsequentdecades that theyas thehad not. These ethnic conflicts represented what Walkerhas describedConnorBurmesestate'sto'mostvisibleandbarrierpost-colonialsignificantintegration'.the trend toward

for Burma ininsurgency and its significanceparticular, Pye's book avoids the issue, making only one passing reference to the questionof minoritiesin a book of 300 pages. Nor does it figure in his earlier work on Malaya:theseenasnot'Chineseness'of the MCPisrelevant.Hissupportersparticularlyneglect ofethnic conflict was not particularly unusual for modernisationtheorists in this period.36

However,

despite

ethnic

By contrast, Clifford Geertz (who served in the US Navy during World War II beforethe questionof ethnic differences morecareer) addressedembarking on an academica1963inbooktheCommitteeforthe Comparativedirectlysponsored byStudy of Newat the UniversityNationsof Chicago.37 Althoughhis analysis reflected an awareness ofto the edited volume he tended to treat culturalin his contributiondifferences,as relatively fixed and even 'primordial'.and religious sentimentsIn his chapter on 'Theethnic

in this periodI. Rudolph,includedLloydwas a memberfrom 1963-76and Executive

ofWest Africa (New York: Rand McNally,

1965).

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MARK

436

T. BERGER

Geertz

revolution',

integrativescientist

a significant

an anthropologistby training rather than a politicalconcernofabout the chances for success ofdegreein the new nations of Asia andrevolution'underway

expressedhe called the 'integrativeas a process by whichAfrica. This was represented'primordial'loyalties to region, race,wereinto a wider nationalsubsumedkinship group, custom,religion and language

what

consciousness.38

andchapter dealt with a range of examples,including Burma, Malayahethatthethesethreeerstwhiledifferencescolonies,amongDespitearguedofthe political normalisationthey and other new nations shared a 'common problemortoGeertzthe'new'na?vestates'discontent'.apprentice paintersprimordialcomparedGeertz's

'their own proper style'. He then described

the 'new states' as 'imitative,

ill-defined'and 'uncertain'.did not have the loyalty of

is not contained,during much of the 1950s and 'if its ethnic enthusiasmat the time ofnot have [this loyalty] a decade hence either'. Meanwhile,writingin the Outer Islands of Indonesia and the trend towards authoritarianismthe rebellionsthat country as 'anin the late 1950s and early 1960s, Geertz perceivedunder Sukarnonon-Burmansitmay

classic case of integrative failure'. He lamented that 'every step toward modernity'coerthe tendency towards 'an unstable amalgam of militaryhad simply strengthenedrevivalism'.39 The increasing perceptioncion and ideologicalby the early 1960s that thein Southeast Asia such as Burma and Indonesia were drifting from thenation-statesalmost

Feith

in the detailed empirical work of Herbert

path was also apparentLev on the latter country. At the same time, their analysis reflectedand universalisingorientationof modernisationtheory and its ahistoricalantermsof its inability to recapitulatethe Indonesiantrajectory inevaluating

democratic

modern

and Daniel

the elitist

approach,idealised version of the NorthWhileNorth American

path to modernity.40such as Geertz were concerned withsocial scientiststhewasnewtheUStheofofnationIndonesia,governmentplaying aintegrative prospectsastoitseffortsdestabiliseofofthelateintherebellionsrole1950s,partsupportingkeythe Sukarno regime. The 'loss' of China in 1949 had a powerfulimpact on the thinkingEisenhower

of President

the victorythey believedTrumanadministration's

American

In particular,and his Secretary of State lohn Foster Dulles.in large measurefrom therevolutionflowedof the Chinesetheterritorialwithintegrity ofpreoccupationmaintaining

of theand politicalwiththe obvious militarysuperioritythat Sukarno's non-alignedcombined with the assumptionoutlook,thatCommunistand alliance with the IndonesianParty (PKI) were evidence

Feith, The decline

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Press,Cornell

AND

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

437

NATION-BUILDING

Government1950s: the PemerintahanRevolusioner(RevolutionaryRepublik IndonesiainSumatraSemestaAlamand Piagam Perjuanganof the Republicof Indonesia-PRRI)in Sulawesi, primarily under the leadership of(Universal Struggle Charter-Permesta)army officers.disgruntledThe emergenceof the PRRI and Permesta revolts was driven to a significant degreewere aIn particular,the movementsby the struggle between Left and Right in Indonesia.response to the resurgence of the PKI, which was growing in influence by the late 1950sand increasingly arguing that the national revolution needed to be completed by breakon compradorelements. Viewing the nation's ties with imperialism and its dependenceasaneventotherebellionsdestabiliseandopportunityingpossiblytopple Sukarno'scovert supportconsiderableprovidedincreasingly left-leaning government, Washingtonto the ultimately unsuccessfulIn 1957-8 it initiated a covert CIA-led operarebellions.tion involving the US Navy and elements of the US Air Force which was larger in scaleand scope than the much better known(though no more successful) Bay of Pigs operain Indonesia,Cuba in the early 1960s. However,these conflictsanwereethnicstillabout reconfiguringcomponent,certainly havingprimarilyit up (as was the case in Burma, forthe Indonesiannation-staterather than breakingthis period, and in contrast to later years, a strong commitmenttoexample). Throughoutnational unity survived across the political spectrum in Indonesia.41tion against Castro's

while

the Cold War and nation-building

II: 1960-75Decolonisation,inSoutheastThe challenge of guerrilla communismAsia II:Creatingthe 'bonestructure of a modern nation'The work on nation-buildingtheoristsby Pye, Geertz and other modernisationreflected the growing concernin the 1960s about the future of the new nations. Thisin Americanintersected with an increased emphasisforeign policy circlessymbolisedby the election of John F. Kennedy, whosought to revitalise and reorient US anti- onamorecommunisttheforneedambitious nation-buildingglobalismstrategy. Thisin Asia (as well as Latin America,involved taking the initiativethe MiddleEast andtocounterviathe communistthreatthe infusion of increased levels of militaryAfrica)and economicaid, advice and support. As already suggested, the country that best encapsulated US nation-buildingIn a keynoteefforts in the early 1960s was South Vietnam.aonatWest Point18 April 1963, attended by Lucian Pye amongaddress to conferenceRostow declared that the key to winningthe guerrilla war in Southothers, Walt WhitmanVietnam was to Create at forced-draftthe bone structure of amodernnation'.42 Rostow'scareer signified the important connectionbetweentheories of nation-building,modernisation and national developmentInand US geopolitical1950safter1945.thestrategyhe was closely associated with CENIS, an important nexus for developmenteconomicstheory that was established

led primarily by troops from the old Dutch

Journal of Emerging Areas, 22, 6 (2001): 1006.

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MARK

438

T. BERGER

as the biggest defence contractor of any American

university by the end ofWorld War II,a positionit occupiedthe Cold War and after(followed closely by Stanford) throughoutatMIT,ward. Following CENIS's establishmentit initially focused its research activities,to Rostow, on the 'study of communistsocieties and the study of problems ofaccordingsocialandeconomic,developmentpolitical'.43Rostow, who served in the research and analysis branch of the OSS during the war,became an advisor to Kennedy(then a Senator) at the end of the 1950s. He went on tobe chair of the Policy Planning Staff in the State Departmentadminduring the KennedyasasantowelladvisorPresidentVietnamtheistration,War; he waslohnson duringinNationalAdvisor1966.Maxwho was onMeanwhile,Millikan,Securityappointedserveasto1940sand early 1950s in orderleave from MIT in the lateAssistant Director ofEconomicCENIS,

Research at the CIA, returned

a position he held until his death

to academiain 1952 to becomein 1969.44such as Millikanand Rostow

the director

of

advocatedandBy the late 1950s CENIS luminariesinshiftUSfromthetheSovietUnionwithawaysymbolisedforeign policycontainingdirect militaryforce (at a time whenthe Soviet Unionhad begun developingatomicinandtheAfricaandviatowardsinitiativeLatinAmericainfuAsia,takingweaponry)set of nationaland militaryaid as part of an increasinglysions of economicambitiousand counter-insurgencydevelopmentAnon-communistmanifestogrowth:

The stages of economic

Rostow'sprogrammes.morethan any other single(1960) encapsulated,tomodernistandtheanti-communisttext,approachhighnation-buildingemanatingwas 'a kind ofin the early 1960s. Rostowfrom Washingtonargued that communismcan befall a transitionaldisease whichthosesociety if it fails to organiseeffectivelyHeitwhich are prepared to get on the with the job of modernisation'.elements within'onnorth' to Tace and deal with the challenge implicit in thecalled[us] of the democratic... at the full stretch of our moral commitment,our energy,[theory]stages-of-growthand

our

resources'.45

to facilitateand state interventionRostowadvocatedgovernmentplanningmovementnation through his five stages to reach ctake-off. However,of a developingcontrast to some of the moreof developmentstructuralisteconomics,proponents

Johns Hopkins(Baltimore:Universityof economicgrowth: A non-Communistcontext162-7. The broaderof the bookLaos

and Vietnam

(New York:

Oxford

Press,

1985),

manifestois discussedUniversity

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pp.

27-9.

(New York:in LawrencePress,

2000),

DECOLONISATION,

MODERNISATION

AND

439

NATION-BUILDING

of emergentin the eighteenththe industrialisationnation-statesanddistinguishedcenturies from developingnations of the twentieth.nineteenthBy the time The stages of economic growth was published, Rostow and Millikan wereonIn January 1960, the US Senate Committeeserving as advisors to Senator Kennedy.aawasRelationswhichreceiveditcommishad(ofmember)reportForeignKennedysioned

from CENIS entitled

social and political change in the underdevel'Economic,countriesanditsforUnitedStates policy'. The authors expoundedtheopedimplicationson the importanceCENIS perspectiveof the developingnations for US foreign policy.were that AmericanThe report's main recommendationsaid shouldforeign economicon a 'long-term'be disbursedand 'unlinked' basis followingclear economiccriteria.to continuein agriculture,neededand land reformassistance,particularlyIt emphasisedneeded to be promoted.that the US needed to coordinatethe distributionof aid with other donor governmentsin the developed world and that a corps of development professionalsshould be established. Aid for particularcapital-intensiveprojects,it was argued, should be increased and spread over a number of projects to facilitate anations. A revised and expanded version of the report was'big push' in the developingwasiniteditedand Donald Blackmer, and included chapters1961;publishedby MillikanandRostowothers.46byPye, amongTechnical

The challenge of 'guerrilla communism'

inSoutheastAsia III:South VietnammoreNowheretheadministrationdidfocusenergy on the challenge ofKennedythan in South Vietnam,wherethe US-backedguerrilla communismnation-buildinginitiative entered a new phase with the end of the Eisenhowerpresidency. This new phasealso flowed in significant measurefrom changes to the situation in South Vietnamitselfin 1954, whichthe Geneva Conferenceby the end of the 1950s. FollowingtemporarilyViet Minhthe communist-ledto thehad withdrawnVietnam,partitionedmilitarilyto live in the South.and supporters continuedNorth, but a large number of itsmembersIn 1959, in part as a result of growing pressurefrom Southern members,the PartyintoHanoitookthedecisioninarmedInSouthVietnam.supportleadershipstruggle1960 the NationalaDecemberLiberation Front of South Vietnamfront(NLF),popularon the Viet Minh, was establishedto spearhead the guerrilla war;organisation modelledthe fighting betweenthe NLF and the South Vietnameseregime increased steadily overthe following year.47In response,the Strategic Hamletof Washingthe 'centerpiece'Program becameon the experienceton's policy towards South Vietnamin 1962-3. Drawingof previousFrench colonial initiatives, earlier efforts by the regime of Ngo Dinh Diemas(1955-63),well as British counter-insurgencyininthe 1950s, the KennedyprogrammesMalayaAdministrationand facilitated the removal of peasants from widely disperencouragedsed villages, placing them in concentratedsettlements which could be controlled morein Saigon. Washington'scommitmentdirectly by the governmentinthefactthattheStatealmostscheduledapparentDepartment46

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(Sydney:historical

440

T. BERGER

MARK

on Strategic Hamlet programmes

for fiscal year 1963. Using this strategy, the US Militaryor at least seriously weakenAssistance CommandandUSAID(MACV)sought to blockthe NLF's ability to get intelligence,food and other supplies, as well as recruits from theSouthern population.They also sought to inculcate new ideas about national citizenshipthat were centred on loyalty to the governmentof South Vietnam.In 1962 it initially appeared as if the Strategic Hamlets were underminingthe influence of the NLF; however,to counterthe guerrillas acted rapidly and effectivelythistrend. The NLF promisedthe peasantsmany of whom were, not surprisingly, hostile tothe forced labour demandsand other coercive aspects of the US-backedresettlement,that followingthe revolutionprogrammethey would be allowed to return to their oldin the hamlets.In a widerattacks on and recruitmentvillages. It also intensified militarythe Strategic Hamletfailed because US officials and advisorssense, however,Programwere unable or unwillingto examine the ideas on whichit rested. The assumptionthatand values could be eradicated, or at least revised, to fit anti-communistas the war deepened. Afterandmodernisingnation-buildinggoals remained entrenchedin a militarythe overthrowand assassinationof Diem and his brother Ngo Dinh Nhuwasterminthehamlet'fromNovemberexcised1963,coup'strategiccounterinsurgencydid little butdiscourse, but subsequent efforts to resettle and control the rural populationrural practices

the end of the Diem

overshadowed

but failed to solve the fundamental

destruction,political problemsof South Vietnam.The pervasiveof the Saigon regime and the fragile nation-statereliance on the US generated growing possibilitiesforand politicaleconomic, militarythat completelyshredded the South Vietnameseand private corruptiongovernmentalcredentials. The war became a business opportunityfor manynationalistgovernment'sa significant numberelite in Saigon. Whilemembersof the wealthyand well-connectedof people in the South were hostile to the communists,they also lost interest in fightingand environmental

incorrupt and despotic US-backedregime in Saigon. Furthermore,a modernin the southern half of Vietnam,nation-stateUS policyidentified with the culturally and hismakers overlookedthe fact that many SouthernerswasVietnamthan the post-1954thatdelineatednationoflargerpolity presidedtoricallyover by Diem and his successors.49for the increasinglythe effort to build

I:Reorientationand revisiontheory and nation-buildingMilitary modernisationto the search for theories of modernisationA continuedand strategiescommitmentin the work of a number ofrelevance was apparentwith universalof nation-buildingmodernisationthe war

theorists

in Vietnam

in the 1960s and

provided

the backdrop

as ideology,Latham, Modernizationsee RichardA. Hunt,thetic assessment

Pacification:

Press,(Boulder: Westview49 Latham, Modernization

p.

48

1995).as ideology,

pp.

153-4,

161; Kolko,

1970s. Observers

have

for the consolidation

203-4.

180-2,197-8,The American

Anatomy

For

frequently argued that

of what is sometimesa broader

and more

struggle for Vietnam's

of

a war,

pp.

111-25,

hearts

208-30,

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sympaand minds

654-7.

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

AND

441

NATION-BUILDING

itthe politics-of-orderapproach, or military modernisationtheory. In particular,is often held that as a result of an increasing number of challenges to US nation-buildingand organisationsthat could provide order becameefforts, the creation of institutionsthe key issue for modernisationtheorists during the 1960s. In the context of the prominent role of the militaryin politics in Asia and beyond this led to growing interest in theaasforce'.50'militarymodernisingin1959 article that sought to direct attention to Southhiswell-knownGuy Pauker,east Asia, warned against the 'liberal tradition' of the United States which made'it repugnant to contemplateelements'.51 By 1962 his views hadregimes controlledby militarybecome more explicit in their emphasis on a militarysolution,rejecting psychologicaltheories of nation-buildingand the preoccupationwith winning'hearts and minds'thatwas ostensiblyat the time. At a conference onthe key to 'constructive counterinsurgency'called

'The US Army's Limited War Mission

and Social Science Research' held at AmericanininPauker told those in attendanceabout newmid-1962,UniversityWashingtonresearch at the Rand Corporationthe prevailing emphasis on social andthat challengedeconomicreformismand psychologicalin Cold Warapproachescounterinsurgencyin Southeast Asia and beyond.52campaignsWhilePauker's views were out of step with the presentationsof the other particiininthetheshiftfromto'constructiveconference,pantsemphasiscounterinsurgency''coercive counterinsurgency'that was being advocated by the social science division atthe Rand Corporationineventually became the 'intellectual prop' for direct interventionSouth Vietnam

after 1965. As the 1960s unfolded,

the USby the Johnson administrationorwithoftheatintellectualsbasedaffiliated with the Randgovernment,supportpolicytheorists, was increasinglyCorporationalong with other modernisationformulatingand/or acting on what some observers have called 'military modernisationtheory'.53 Asthe decade progressed,of the modernisingrole of the militaryin Asia andproponentselsewheretheofofficersandemphasisedimportanceincreasinglycultivating militaryantoasthecentralroletheincouldpointedorganisationmilitaryplaynation-buildingand the provisionof order.54

For example,Armed forcesin the new states (London: OxfordPress,Gutteridge,UniversityThe role of the militaryin underdevelopeded. John J. JohnsonPrincetoncountries,(Princeton:The militaryin the politicalnew nations: An essayPress,Janowitz,1962); MorrisUniversitydevelopmentofin comparativeof ChicagoinstituPress,1964); Williamanalysis(Chicago: UniversityGutteridge,Militarytions and powerin the new states (New York: Praeger,'Indonesia:The age ofJ. Pauker,1965); and Guy1962);

see an article133-47. Alsoto Indonesia,Survey, 8, 2 (1968):by the former US ambassadorthat the 'greatest encouragementfor the future' of Indonesia'remainsthe characterandof the leaders of the New Order';'Indonesia:Year of the pragmatists',AsianJohn M. Allison,intelligencewas less optimistic137. A year later Allisonbut still very supportivein his 'Indonesia:Survey, 9, 2 (1969):The end of the beginning?',2 (1970):Asian143-51.10,Survey,

reason?', Asianwhoenthused

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MARK

442

T. BERGER

is generallySamuel Huntingtonthe shift from classical modernisation

seen as one of the most

ofexponentsprominentwithitsitsorientationandtheory,psychologicalto the politics-of-orderand military modernisation

apparent emphasis on democracy,

political science, Huntingtontheory. A major figure in North Americanbegan his careeras an undergraduatean MA at the Universityat Yale in the 1940s. He completedofChicago and then did his Ph.D. at Harvard,In the 1950s and 1960s he acted in variousand to the Democratic

objectivedemocraciesmajor capitalist-industrialtheir interests.) He was on the Trilateraland authored the section on the United

in order to better promote

stability and protectTask Force on the Governabilityof DemocraciesinForceStatesthe well-knownTaskreport, The

crisis of democracy. Huntington

served on the NationaltheSecurity Councilduring1978toinbecometheCenterforDirectoroftheadministration,AugustresigningInternational Affairs at Harvard University.55wrote about the militaryIn the 1950s and early 1960s Huntingtonin politics. His

Carter

as a theorist of political development

and modernisationthat(a reputationreputationwith Politicalhad first been established with The soldier and the state) was consolidatedin 1968.56 The book was exceedinglyorder in changing societies, which first appearedinfluential.dramaticor many

as Paul Cammackand Irene L. Gendzier have argued, itwas not asHowever,a departure from earlier trends in modernisationtheory as either Huntingtonare tomainideas and propositionsother observers have suggested. Many of its

and democracy,Gendzier,pp. 2, 36-7,52-4;Managingpoliticalchange, pp. 42-7.in his 'Political1968 book was foreshadowedand politicalof Huntington'sdevelopmentin NorthA survey of universityand collegeinstructors386-430.17, 3 (1965):Politics,60 per cent of the academicsPoliticalthat almostin the early 1970s reportedAmericasurveyedregardedonas the 'mostand modernisationbooksocietiesorder in changingdevelopmentimportant'politicalThe

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at

DECOLONISATION,

MODERNISATION

AND

443

NATION-BUILDING

held up political order as the ultimate goal of any society. In an implicit

Huntingtoneconomicshe argued that contraryofand Cold War policy-makerscritiquedevelopmentto earlier expectations,since Worldthe instability in Asia and the rest of the Third WorldIIwas primarily the result of'rapidof newsocial change and the rapid mobilisationwithintoslowIn histheofinstitutions'.groupsdevelopmentpolitics coupledpoliticalthis point, because Washingtonhadview, US foreign policy since 1945 had missedfocused on the 'economic gap' and ignored the 'political gap' because of the assumptionin North Americathat politicalfrom 'social reform' stimulatedstability flowedbyeconomic development.He argued that itwas actually the process of modernisationthat

War

was the 'road to political

in politicalinstability. For Huntingtonorganisationasaswelltheof'foundationWhilethe'vacuum of power andpower'political stability'.wasseentoexist in 'so many modernisingcountries may be filledauthority' whichorcharismatichecontendedthat it couldforce',temporarily byleadershipby military'befilledonlypermanently'by 'political organisation'.58resulted

Muchmodernisation

of Huntington'semphasis can already be discernedtheorists such as Pye and Almond.For example,

in the writing of earlier

as we have seen, a con

cern about

the neglect of the political

side of developmentalong with an emphasis onwere present in Pye's book on Burma,institutionsand creating organisationsbuildingin relation to his discussionwhich Huntingtoncited approvinglyof the need for buildingsameAtto the contrary, thetheevidencetime,political organisations.despite growingthat economicassumptionin US governmentcircles

to prevaildevelopmentproduced political stability continuedinto the mid-1960s.In fact, Huntingtondirectly challengedRobertS. McNamara'sof this view in 1966.59 AsarticulationSecretary of Defensecriticisms of McNamara'sviews on the causal link between poverty andHuntington'sbetween Huntington'sin Politicalconclusionsinstability suggest, there was a connectionorder in changing societies and his work for the governmentin the second half of the1960s. From 1966-9 he was chairman of the Council on VietnameseStudies of USAID'sSouth East Asian Advisory Group.In 1967 he spent time in South Vietnam,after whichsuccess there in terms of the NLF'she wrote an article that explainedthe communistin rural areas where authority was lacking'. In his view - and'ability to impose authoritythis was amajor theme of his book as well - the appeal of communismin South Vietnamstemmed not from materialbutfromthatis, the lack ofpoverty,'political deprivation',an 'effective structure of authority'.In Huntington'sand in contrast to earlierestimation,writers on the subject, the rural areas could not be retaken from the communists;in the1965 and 1968 approximately3million Vietnamesethree years betweenhad already fledto the urban areas, especially Saigon. In South Vietnamand elsewherethe key to comwarswastooftonationalliberation,batingaccordingHuntington,adopt a policy of'forced-draft urbanisation'and 'modernisation',which would quickly shift the nationstate in questionthe stage where a rural-basedrevolutionhad any chance ofbeyondbuilding

'Social science and Vietnam',

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alsohas

444

MARK

T. BERGER

of HuntingtonThe draconian prescriptionsand other modernisationtheorists whoorder as the primary objective held out the possibilitythat successful nationin South Vietnamand elsewhereremained within Washington'spower.buildingviewed

in early 1968 any idea that US power could turn South

the Tet Offensivea viablenation-stateand achieve militarycapitalistvictoryagainstFor the architects of the US war in Vietnam,the North disappeared.the Tet Offensiveas 'a long-postponedconfrontationwithrepresented what Gabriel Kolko has describedtoturntheoftheVietnamAmericaneffortintoSouthbackdropfailingreality'.61 Againsta Southeast Asian version of South Korea or TaiwanwereintermsWarCold(whichwith

However,Vietnam

into

anbook representedsimilar but had very different histories), Huntington'sanrevisionItandofmodernisationalsotheory.representedimportantonortothe deeperwhichthe US-ledassumptionsprobeunwillingnessinabilitymodernisationthe closeproject rested. Political order in changing societies highlightedscience and the 'policy concerns of the day'. The assumpconnectionbetween politicalsuperficially

reorientation

of the officials who carried the US into full-scale war inVietnam weretothat emerged in the 1950s and 1960s.62the theories of modernisationcloselyto be constrainedmodernisationcontinuedrevisions,Despitetheoryby the way inas a process in terms of a very limited number of pathswhich change was conceptualisedThis outlook was groundedtowards capitalist modernity.implicitly, and often explicitly,tions and concernsconnected

in romanticised

of the history of North America

and WesternEurope (especiallynationThenaturalisationofalso meshed with and reintheBritain).a great deal of work onthat had come to underpinforced the wider organic metaphorsover theofandmodernisation.conceptionsdevelopmentevolutionaryOrganicglosseduseunevenof ecooftheand destructiveMeanwhile,aspectscapitalist development.tonomic and political models with little regardquestions of time and place facilitated thetechnocraticbetween the 1940s and the 1970s of a shifting but consistentlyconsolidationthe US

II:Diversificationand declineMilitary modernisationtheory and nation-building1970smodernisationthetheelaborationofmilitarytheory and the politicsByawasinofdiversificationmuchwiderand declineofof-orderprocesspartapproachnewasradicalmoderatetheoreticalvariousandmodernisationchallengerstheoryauthorincluded the emergenceof the concept of bureaucraticemerged. This processA.thistheworkofGuillermowithitarianism. AssociatedO'Donnell,theory hadinitiallysomeby the 1970s. O'Donnellprominenceargued that in late-industrialisinggaineda61 Kolko, Anatomyof war,62 D. MichaelShafer, Deadly

p. 334.

The failurePrinceton(Princeton:policyof US counterinsurgencyparadigms:on the connectionscienceand policy-making;betweenPress,1988), p. 12, commentspoliticalUniversitysee also Gilman,Warthe subject of a massiveThe Vietnamhas beenIntroduction.the world','Pavingof the assumptionsthat underpinnedevaluationconsiderableamountof historicalscholarship,includingsee RobertA'US-Vietnameserelations:literatureUS policyin that era. On this immenseJ.McMahon,historiographicaltwenty-first

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the eve of the

313-36.

AND

MODERNISATION

DECOLONISATION,

445

NATION-BUILDING

and greater,intersected with the end of democracyeconomic developmentMarxismandthan less, inequality. His approach drew on Weberiansociology,onMorehebuiltcriticallyapproach andcorporatist concepts.specifically,Huntington's

nation-statesrather

on the early historical

Central to O'Donnell's

of modernisationtheory articulated by Barringtonwasthe argument that a bureaucratic-authoritariananalysis

critique

Moore.state

were reached. At this

industrialisationemerged when the limits of import-substitutionbetweentheclassand the nationalthealliancewhichhadbeenpointforgedworkingantoformalliancethe militaryandbrokedownandthelattermovedwithbourgeoisieinAthe technocracy,bureaucratic-authoritarianism.central characteristicof aresultingwas that itwas an attemptregime, as defined by O'Donnell,totothetheirinterests and guide thelinkedtransnationalprotectcapital,bybourgeoisie,acommensurateindirectionwiththeirneeds.63economyelements of the theory ofBy the second half of the 1970s, the more deterministicwerebureaucratic-authoritarianism(even by O'Donnellbeing increasinglychallengedbureaucratic-authoritarian

at the same time as it was being used as a relatively open conceptual

himself),framework that provided a guide for research more than a verifiable theory. The concepta particularlyof bureaucratic-authoritarianismcritical revision of modernirepresentedin the wayit incorporatedsation theory that went muchfurther than HuntingtonfromMarxistandMarxist-derivedtheories.itsinsightsAlthoughprimary impact was onLatin American

Studies, bureaucratic-authoritarianismofmodernisationand political development.studyinthescience towardsshiftto,political'bringingfor the analysis of politicalimportantimplications

projectThis project flowed from the Committee'shope that WesternEuropeanexamples couldbe used to 'test and refine' the theories of modernisationand political developmenttheywas also concernedin relation to the developing world. The Committeehad generatedas part ofin significancethat the study of Europeanpolitics was steadily decliningThe proposedproject on Europe was at leastvia its inclusion in the studystudiesEuropean politicalin the non-Europeanworld.

the sub-disciplineof comparativeanattempt to rejuvenatepartiallyof political

politics.

developmentfor Lucian Pye, who was by this point Chair ofTilly's study was a disappointmentto providesustenancethe Committee,becauseof its failurefor theparticularlywasandthatthehallmarkofahistoricalapproachpolitical developmentuniversalisingtheory. The book crystallised the tension between political science and history in relation- a tensionto the study of state formationand nation-buildingcentred on the universalinthe particular. At the same time, its emphasis on the role of conflict and violencestate formation and in the emergence of nation-statesin Europe represented a critique ofof social change central to modernisationthe evolutionaryand organicconceptionandpolitical developmenttheory moretheory generallyspecifically. By the time Tilly'sthefieldofunderway,political developmenttheory was breaking down. Inproject gotwasonPoliticswoundtheCommitteefact,up in 1972, while The formationComparativewasstatesinWesternhisthree years later. UltimatelynationalEuropeonly publishedofversus

social science in the 1970s in

the growing interest in North Americanstudy symbolisedwasto political change. This shiftformalised with the formastate-centredapproacheson States and Social Structures, whichtion in 1983 of the SSRC's Committeesponsoredan edited volume entitled Bringing the state back in.66the fall of Saigon, by whichtimein North America. Howsuch as politicalscience,important position of political scientists as

The publicationof Tilly's book coincidedSoutheast Asian Studies in general had declinedever, itwas specific disciplines within Southeastthat were

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1991),

science:p. 49.

DECOLONISATION,

MODERNISATION

AND

447

NATION-BUILDING

1962 andBetweenrecipients of the SSRC's FAFP grants has already been mentioned.1964 politicalfor work on Southeast Asia were by far the mostscience applicationsnumerousto be received by the FAFP, and as US involvementin Vietnamdeepened,at least 50 per cent of all applications.science proposalsBetweenpoliticalrepresentedas in the previous1968 and 1970 politicalscience applicationsremained as numerousfrom anthropologistsovertookhowever,subsequently,three-year period;proposalsto the FAFP for support forthose from political scientists. Political science applicationsto a historicallywork on Southeast Asia then descendedlow level in 1974-6.67The relative retreat of Northend of the Vietnam

War

Americanto the way

political scientists from Southeast

in which US failure in Vietnam

Asia by theled to the

pointsredirection of the modernisingof political scientists. In effect, for practitioexpectationsners of modernisationtheory itwas not the theory itself that was seen to have failed, butSouth Vietnamspecifically, and even Southeast Asia more generally. Instead of exploringthe reasons for that failure, politicalscientiststurned their attentioneitherelsewhere,orthelatetheCountries1970s,geographicallyBythematically.NewlyIndustrialising(NICs) of East Asia, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore were attractingsuccess of Thailandinterest. By the 1980s the economicand Malaysia(andgrowinglatterly Indonesia and coastal China) was being studied and celebrated by key modernisationtheorists such as Lucian Pye, often via revised theories of modernisation.Withseen as having finallythe end of the Cold War, Vietnamhas also been increasinglydiscovered

the path to capitalist modernity.68

Conclusiontrendtheory emerged as the most significant conceptualareain political science andstudies. This article has examinedthe history ofthattheoryfrom the 1940s to the 1970s with a focus on Southeast Asia, emphasisingthe way inwhichthe Cold War, nation-buildingand the growing power of the US weredecolonisation,central to the consolidationof the modernidea of political and economicdevelopment.While modernisationand political developmenttheory played an important role in theIn the 1950s modernisation

formalisationof the study of Southeast Asia in this period, the dramatic transitions fromcolonies to nation-statesin that region and the deepening war in what had been FrenchwereturninIndochinaof modernisationpivotal to the rise and transformationtheory.sameaAt thecentral contradictionof modernisationtime,theory, and of the widermodernisationtook theUS-sponsoredproject, was the way in whichthey uncriticallyas the key unit of analysis.nation-stateThe Cold War

but was also contingent

conditioned,upon, the worldprofoundlyofdecolonisationandtheuniversalisationofthenation-stateprocesssystem.ensured that theories of modernisationand political developmentand approaches

historicalThis

to nation-buildinghad important connectionswithcharacterisedby important new ideas and practices

67

Philpott,Rethinking68 Gerard Greenfield,rise of East Asia: Critical

Routledge,(Cambridge:

Indonesia,

pp. 115-17.visionsof Asia's

the colonial period, but were

on the universalisation

centred

next tiger: Vietnam

'Fragmentedvisions of the Pacific Century,ed. Mark T. BergerLucian Pye's Asian power and politics:The1997), pp. 124-47.Harvardten years after thePress,1985) appearedUniversity

the Pacific Century',

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448

MARK

T. BERGER

in the Cold War era was increasingly

the nation-statesystem. US and Soviet globalismain world of ostensiblyand the theories of modernsovereign nation-states,pursuedthat emerged and were revised were more distinct fromisation and political developmentand imperial ideas about progress than is often argued. The shift fromand national develtheories of progress to Cold War theories of nation-buildingwasmorereorientationof modernisationthethanfarimportantsubsequentopmentonantoAtthe same time,1960sorder.infromthedemocracypoliticalemphasistheoryin1960sthereflectedoftheoriesthe waningof psychologicaldevelopmentpoliticaltotoin therevisioncontinuebe subjectwouldthe fact that theories of modernisationearlier

colonial

colonial

context

of the wider

dynamics

of the Cold War

and the nation-state

system.

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